PA: Palestinians don’t need Israel’s permission to build in West Bank

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, responds to the Israeli government’s approval of construction in the West Bank by saying that Palestinians have the right to build on their land “without needing a permit from anyone.”

“We will not give any legitimacy to the construction of any settlement,” he says in a statement carried by the PA’s official news outlet Wafa.

Last night, the security cabinet unanimously approved a plan introduced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will grant 700 building permits to Palestinians in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank, alongside 6,000 such licenses for homes in neighboring settlements.

Palestinians are rarely granted building permits in Area C, and recent years have seen the total number of approvals remain in the single digits, compared to the thousands of green-lighted homes for Israeli settlers.

The move appears to be timed to coincide with a visit by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and chief Mideast envoy Jared Kushner, who is expected in the region this week.

— with AP